I’m not going to rehash the past week’s events. You already know what happened in Orlando. You have an opinion about why these events took place. You don’t know how to solve the problem of gun violence in our country. Agreed?
The most common lament I’ve heard in the past week is “We all just need to talk about this and agree on how to move forward.”
No. We don’t need to agree. We just need to do something.
Our legislators’ complete failure to respond to this problem is the best example of akrasia that I’ve ever seen. (I’ve written about this before–it’s the ancient Greek word for acting against our own best interests. Akrasia is why you stay home and eat donuts rather than going to the gym, even though you know exercise is good for you and donuts are not.) They know we’re in the middle of a crisis. They know they need to act before another group of people gets mowed down. And yet, they refuse to do anything.
I confess to having felt both infuriated and confused by this. But Jory Mackay’s article The Important Habit of Just Starting gave me some insight that helped. (Note that Mackay’s article is not about the Orlando shooting or gun violence–it’s about the difficulty of getting started on a hard task.) He provides the following equation, developed by Dr. Piers Steel, a professor of organizational behavior at the University of Calgary:
Let’s break that down into its component parts, shall we?
Motivation is the drive to get something done. Expectancy is our perception of how likely it is that doing a particular thing will benefit us. Value is our estimate of how rewarding that outcome will be.
Underlying those things is impulsiveness–our ability to wait. Delay is how long we’re willing to wait to find out whether we’ll receive the positive outcome we anticipate.
Let’s apply this equation to the problem of gun violence. Our legislators seem to have no motivation to get something done, but why? Because they want to be re-elected; that’s the outcome they value most highly, since it provides their livelihood. Lawmaking takes time, though. And the next election is always right around the corner. If they’re involved with legislation that turns out to be unpopular, their way of life is at stake. So they do nothing. Better safe than sorry.
I want to be really clear about what I’m saying here. Our legislators are not taking action because they value safeguarding their jobs more highly than our lives.
There’s really no other way to understand what’s happening. Or, rather, not happening.
Many legislators veil their inaction with references to protecting our Second Amendment rights. They refused to renew the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban when it expired in 2004, for instance, in an effort to defend those rights. But protecting the Second Amendment hasn’t put an end to mass shootings–in fact, the number of mass shootings increased dramatically after the assault weapons ban expired. So this has proven to be a failed strategy in the effort to solve the problem at hand.
Okay. Let’s accept that fact, use the scientific method, and formulate a new strategy.
But in doing that, the question each of us should be asking is not How do we solve this problem? As I said earlier, no one knows. We all have ideas, but no one has a crystal ball. The more relevant question is, How do we make our legislators do something to solve this problem?
Something other than argue about the best solution, I mean.
The answer to this question is very simple: we vote against the people who have refused to even try. We make it clear that doing something is what gets someone re-elected. We reject those who dig in their heels and say “My way or no way.” No way is what’s getting us killed. So we need to remind our elected representatives that lawmaking is about negotiation, and people who don’t negotiate won’t remain in office.
Voters are the only ones with the power to show our legislators that taking action is always preferable to gridlock–that compromise is better than total inaction. Yet nearly 50% of us don’t even vote. We model inaction for those who represent us, and then we’re furious when our legislators follow our lead.
I don’t want to hear about how your vote won’t count because you live in a red state or a blue state–all it takes is a critical mass of people making that same argument to shape an election. What if all the blue voters in a blue state stayed home on election day because they were confident their vote wouldn’t change anything? Those who voted for Ralph Nader in the 2000 election did so knowing their candidate wouldn’t win. They still shaped the outcome of that election. Their votes absolutely counted.
In fact, your vote is the only thing that counts. It’s what your legislators value above all else. They value it more than your life.
So do your research. Find out who’s been trying to solve the problem and who’s been voting for the status quo that gets people killed on such a regular basis, we’re not even surprised by the news anymore. Don’t stop with your vote for president–that office’s power is limited by congress. Turn your full attention to the people with the responsibility for making the laws that shape our lives. Do this at both the state and federal levels. These are the people who have the power to keep you safe. But not only have they failed–many haven’t even tried.
This world strewn with dead bodies is not the one I want to live in. If it’s not the world you want either, then do something. And let your representatives know that you expect nothing less.
No Comments